Ed has recruited a new member of the Intelguardians group, Matthew Carpenter, to pen this latest challenge. His lack of previous participation has in no way diminished the great tradition of the Skillz H@ck1ng Challenge as set by our good friend, Ed Skoudis.

Hello, Challenge fans! The Intelguardians crew is back this month with another challenge to tickle your fancy and bake your noodle. This month, Matthew Carpenter takes the helm, penning a challenge based on the movie Serenity. Shockingly, a recent SFX magazine poll found that Serenity had overcome Star Wars as the most popular Sci-Fi movie among its readers. It’s amazing what someone can accomplish with a bot-net voting in these on-line polls… Isn’t it, Matt?

I hope you enjoy the challenge, as you help the Serenity crew thwart a nasty bot-net to escape the Reavers and the Alliance.

Remember, as always, we’ll award three prizes: One for the best technical answer, one for the most creative answer that is technically correct, and one awarded to a winner chosen randomly. Thus, if you can’t answer all of the questions, still send something in to qualify for the random winner. This month’s prize is my book, Malware: Fighting Malicious Code, which I authored with Lenny Zeltser.